U.S. leaders say Afghanistan plan on track

Published: Sunday, May 22, 2005

ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) - American commanders say the Taliban is a viable resistance force in Afghanistan even three years after the Islamic radicals fell, but the U.S. military's fight to undermine their influence and bring stability is showing signs of progress.

The assessment follows a stretch in which U.S. troops in Afghanistan have been killed at a higher rate than those in Iraq, where there are about eight times as many American soldiers and where the situation is widely perceived as more dangerous.

Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, plans to meet President Bush at the White House on Monday. It will be his first Washington visit since his inauguration in December as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president.

Combat in Afghanistan has intensified in recent weeks, as expected, after a winter lull. U.S. commanders, however, say they think their plan for improving security - including the expansion of Afghan army, border patrol and police forces - is on track.

Brig. Gen. Greg Champion, a deputy commander of Combined Joint Task Force 76, said in a telephone interview Friday from his headquarters at Bagram airfield that the recent increase in insurgent violence was due mainly to a more aggressive approach by American and Afghan forces.

"We have not taken a posture of waiting" for the Taliban to begin their usual spring offensive, he said. Instead, U.S. and Afghan forces have been "going on our own offensive."

Insurgent attacks continue, however.

Suspected Taliban militants gunned down six Afghan employees of a U.S.-funded anti-drug project in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. Also, an Italian aid worker was kidnapped this past week in Kabul, the capital, adding to the fears of relief groups that are vital to the reconstruction effort.

The U.S. has about 16,700 troops in Afghanistan, and 22 allied nations have 1,600.